


The Littlest Camper

by spellboundnora



Series: snapshots of three intertwining lives [1]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: David actually swears, Gen, He's not as much of a pure cinnamon roll in this than he is usually, Honestly it's mostly just playing with the character dynamic between David and Gwen, Max is not as much of an asshole as he is in canon, Mostly Fluff, NOT m/a/x/v/i/d, Plus how they interact with Max for the first time, Re-edited, Some angst, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 00:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15919023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spellboundnora/pseuds/spellboundnora
Summary: David and Gwen have been best friends for ages, so when he's tasked with finding a new co-counselor for his summer job at Camp Campbell, it's pretty obvious who he goes to first. She may hate kids, but would it really be worse than working at Burger King all summer? Though there is something a little different about this year's round of campers.





	1. Thank God It's the Last Day of History, I Can't Stand This Class

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, this is an old fic of mine that has been re-edited to reflect how I've grown as a writer. Nothing major, mostly just making it third person instead of first, but I have changed the storyline a little, so if you read this back when it was in first person point of view, it might be worth a re-read. Not sure where I'm at with this series as a whole, but a story of how David and Gwen first met might be in the works...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David convinces Gwen to come work with him at a summer camp instead of paying attention in a history lecture. He then promptly zones out for forty minutes because he's running on almost no sleep. He's lucky he has Gwen. Even though she can be an asshole sometimes, she's his best friend, plus she's really good at history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry if there's any bits of first person point of view that I missed! I just wrapped up editing, a multiple hour process, and it's three am, so I might've missed a couple things.

David was incredibly excited to go back to Camp Campbell for his second year as a counselor. And this time, since the counselor he worked with last year had, well, an unfortunate, incident with a bear halfway through the year and vowed never to return, leaving him, still inexperienced, and Mr. Campbell, who would only pop in from time to time to give him vague advice about not trusting the government, as the only ones running the camp for the second half of that summer, it was his job to look for a new counselor. And he knew exactly who would be the perfect candidate!

“I fucking hate kids, David. Why did you think I’d be interested in your summer job? Look, as much as I’d enjoy spending the summer fucking around with you instead of flipping burgers somewhere, there’s no way I’d even get hired. I have no experience with children, I’m an only child for fuck’s sake, and I don’t know the first thing about trying to manage anything. Plus, I don’t know first-aid so no camp is going to hire me.”

“But Gwen, I haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet! You’d be staying in a cabin with me all summer, the pay is over minimum wage, and the only requirement is that you’re over eighteen! And there’s a guarantee that you’ll get the job if you apply, you know why?”

“Okay, disregarding the fact that I would go insane if I stayed in a cabin in the middle of the woods with no access to the rest of humanity all summer, why would I get the job? Because you believe in me?”

“No! Well, I do, but that’s not the reason why! It’s because I’m in charge of hiring a new camp counselor! Also, you’re not completely cut off from humanity, there’s cell service there, and a TV in the counselors’ cabin, so you can watch all of your trashy reality TV shows!”

“Ugh, you know what? Fuck it. I’m in. Chilling in a cabin watching reality TV and occasionally rounding up children so they don’t find creative ways to kill themselves for over minimum wage sounds less hellish than getting burned by fry grease every day at Burger King.”

“That’s great! I’m so happy, this summer is gonna be super hella awesome! Let me just call Mr. Campbell and tell him that I’ve found someone to fill the position!”

Gwen smirked and muttered something along the lines of “God, you’re even more wired than usual, have you gone full ass manic or just had no sleep and three cups of coffee again?” David didn’t answer because he figured that she probably already knew the answer was both, as he had decided to stay up all night last night going over this year’s campers’ activity sheets and Wiki-ing a few of the activities that he didn’t know very much about, knowing that he would be pretty much in charge of everything if he got Gwen in on the job. He was excited that Charles was coming back, the nine-year-old been so much fun in wilderness survival camp last year, and was slightly concerned about one of the new campers, an eight-year-old named Meredith who had chosen extreme sports as her activity. I’d need to talk to Mr. Campbell about just how to build a skateboarding ramp or something of that nature for her. Plus there was one activity sheet that looked like it had been filled in by the camper themselves, as it was written in crayon and the only thing on it was their first name. No last name, no emergency number, no activity, not even an age. Just the name “Max.” He could assume this Max was a boy, but seeing as the name could also stand for Maxine, he really didn’t know anything. It had made him exasperated, and a little nervous in case something went wrong and he wasn't able to contact the kid's parents The sheet said in big letters on the top of the page that it was for parents to fill in, how could anyone miss it? There was nothing he could even do about it, because he had no way of getting into contact with the child or their parents, as the envelope the camp papers from them came in didn’t even have a return address on it. But he had decided to involve a lot more activities that weren't a part of any of the campers' specified camps, because not only would it help them branch out and find other things they might love, but also to find this child an activity they could call their own for the summer. 

“David… David… David! You’re spacing out again!”

David jolted back to reality. A side effect from getting three hours of sleep or having too much coffee, he wasn’t sure, but he’d been zoning out at any given moment all day. 

“You haven’t been paying attention to this lecture at all, have you? You’ve been staring straight at the professor for at least ten minutes straight and class is ending soon.”

Well, it wasn’t his fault they were going over the late colonial era and he found it probably one of the most boring eras in all of history. History was one of the few classes he had with Gwen, because of their different majors. David's being biology, and hers being psychology and liberal arts. Even though in high school she was a grade above him, she’d taken a gap year, so they were in the same level for all of their required non-major related classes and had most of them together. Gwen was absolutely amazing with history, so the two of them would sit in the back of the room and chill out half the time, and then she’d help him whenever he had no idea what was going on.

“When did he start lecturing? The last time I was paying attention, before we started talking about summer jobs, he was playing a video on the Salem witch trials or something.”

“Jesus Christ, David, that video ended half an hour ago. Did you fall asleep or something? Absolutely none of what he’s fucking saying right now matters, as he’s gone off on a tangent about architecture throughout this era for the past fifteen minutes, so you didn't miss much. But I’ll give you what notes I’ve bothered to take after class if you come hang out in my dorm with me and get this camp job sorted out. Plus we can look over our final essays for this class together.”

“Gwen, I love you so much. Without you, I would have failed or dropped this class a long time ago. And of course I’m coming to your dorm after class, no way in hell am I risking going back to my dorm on a Friday night. My roommate’s probably doing drugs or having sex there right now. I’ve told him a hundred times, 'I don’t care if you want to do it, just send me a text or something when your girlfriend's coming over,' but I’ve walked in on them twice this week, and I sure as hell don’t want to do it again. Even the conceited Instagram model you share a dorm with is better than the guy who keeps the drugs he sells on the weekends in the bathroom cabinet next to my hair dryer. I bet the coke or meth or whatever he does is what gives him four times the sex drive of a human being. And I don't really care how he lives his life, but like, really, in our dorm room?”

“Yeah like you would know the sex drive of a normal person, you twenty-year-old virgin.”

“It’s not like you’ve been having much luck in that department either, you motherfucker!”

“Ooh, David used the fuck word, I must have really riled him up. At least I’m not actively looking for someone to bone and still failing.”

“I’m not- did you pull that assumption out of your ass? I’m not looking for hook-ups right now!”

“Hmm, the Tinder and Grindr apps on your phone beg to differ.”

“Okay, one, fuck you for looking through my phone. And two, can I not use dating apps for their intended fucking purpose, looking for someone to date, and not just one night stands?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Getting defensive, caffeine crashing, or general mania?”

Damn she really had him pegged there. Well, she was a psych major for a reason, as well as having known him and the intricacies of his bipolar disorder for years. It wasn't like they were getting anywhere with their bickering, anyways. David sighed and looked at the clock. Five minutes until the class was finally over for good. Thank god it was the last day of the semester.

“All of the above. I’m also running on three hours of sleep. How did you know I had coffee?”

“You’ve been constantly going from super wired to about to pass out every few minutes all day. Your typical manic episodes aren’t that short, and you never go from high to low this many times in a day on a normal amount of sleep. The last time you were this bad was last week, when you had three finals in a day, and you drank a shit ton of coffee and stayed up all night the night before to study. So what got you getting so little sleep? We’ve both taken all of our other finals except for turning in our history essays. And I know you already wrote that because you called me like four times last Monday to ask me questions about it. Shit, am I looking forward to never taking another school-required class for the rest of my life. From next fall onwards, it's all gonna be cool shit.”

“Camp stuff. You’re going to have to help me figure out how to put together an extreme sports camp in the week we have in between turning in the final and packing our shit up tomorrow, and all of the kids getting to the camp next Saturday.”

“This job starts next Saturday? And you only told me today?”

“To be fair, I thought my boss was going to handle finding a new counselor after our last one left. But then he called me today after hearing nothing from him in a month and told me to find someone for the job.”

“Wow, sounds like an asshole.”

“Nah, he’s great. Just always busy. He has all of these other little projects going on as well as running the camp, so sometimes you’re just not going to see him for two weeks, and then he’ll return for a little while and disappear again.”

“So who’s actually in charge of this place if he’s gone all the time?”

“Well, that’s going to be you and me! And the Quartermaster, but his only duties are doing general maintenance work, serving vaguely edible food, and generally being slightly creepy and popping in at random times to scare campers. We also occasionally use him as a punishment, like if campers are being little shits, we’ll make them stay behind and clean the mess hall with him.”

“Is it too late to reconsider taking this job?”

“You bet it is, I have no idea who else I'd hire, and I am sure as hell not rounding up a dozen rowdy children and trying to get them to do things they don’t want to do every day, for two months, by myself.”

“Why do I accept things without learning enough about the consequences?”

“Because you trust me too much.”

“Yeah because you’re not usually this much of a little shit.”

Before David could respond, he heard the sound of forty other college students start getting up out of their desks. Thank god, class was over. The two of them headed back to Gwen's dorm together, talking about how much their final essays sucked. Once they got inside, David called Mr. Campbell, and the only questions he asked were whether she was over eighteen, (she’s twenty-one) and if she was good at yelling at people. (He told him that she excelled at it, which was true, as she'd yelled at him for impulsive decisions many times.)

“Congratulations, you have a job herding children and preteens! I’ll give you some kind of very basic first aid training sometime this week, which will consist of what I remember from the week-long course I took three years ago because I thought it would be required for this job. It’s really not. But it’s probably still good to know.”

“Yay," She said in an entirely uninterested tone. "Now tell me about this camp that every time I hear more about, becomes sketchier and sketchier.”

He told her all about how it used to be a nature camp that he went to as a kid, but after attendance dropped, Mr. Campbell made it into a camp where you could do any activity. So every year, they would build camps based on what the year’s crop of campers were interested in. Campers generally ranged from eight to twelve, though they'd occasionally see one or two thirteen-year-olds. They'd never had a camper younger than eight, half because the informational papers said it was for eight to twelve-year-olds, and half because parents generally didn’t want to send their kids away for two months when they were that young. After that, the two of them looked over each other’s final essays, and Gwen pointed out at least three historical inaccuracies in David's. Her’s all looked correct to him, but she was the one who was good at the subject, so he may not have been of much help. David knew history could be fascinating, but since they only covered from the middle ages to colonial times, he didn't really give much of a shit about any of it.

David ended up spending the night at her dorm, as they realized it was three am way too quickly, plus once he got there he found that her roommate had already left for the summer, so the other bed was bare. Gwen gave him a couple of blankets because she had a mountain of them on her bed, and a sweatshirt to use as a pillow. It wasn’t comfortable, but his dorm was halfway across campus, and he really did not have the energy to go all the way back there. The next day, they turned in our final essays and, to celebrate that they'd gotten through the last class of the semester, went out to get ice cream for breakfast because they were totally responsible adults that do not have poor decision-making skills and not enough impulse control.


	2. How to Deal with a Dozen Screaming Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David and Gwen meet the year's crop of eight to twelve-year-olds and find out many things they weren't really anticipating. Life throws curveballs at them, but sometimes those curveballs are grumpy and adorable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry if there's any bits of first person point of view that I missed! I just wrapped up editing, a multiple hour process, and it's three am, so I might've missed a couple things.

David thought he and Gwen made an amazing team getting camp ready for all of the campers to arrive. They'd just finished putting up the last of the tents as he heard the bus pull up. He grabbed Gwen's arm as they ran over to the mess hall, where the yellow school bus had parked. The doors opened and out poured about a dozen kids. David was absolutely ecstatic to see all of the familiar faces from last year, and all of the nervous but excited new kids. 

“Hello everybody, and welcome to Camp Campbell! I’m your head counselor David, and this is my counselor buddy, Gwen!”

Gwen gave a small wave to all of the kids as they studied both of them. One returning camper piped up, scrutinizing Gwen.

“So I guess George really wasn’t kidding when he said he wouldn’t come back to this hellhole even if he was held at gunpoint.”

“Charles, George was under a lot of stress last year, and he thought it would be better if he chose another occupation this summer. Also, you need to watch your language.”

“Dude, I told you a dozen fucking times last to call me Chucky.”

“Oh, sorry Chucky, I’ve had a really busy morning with Gwen here setting everything up for you happy campers! It must have just slipped my mind.”

David led the campers into the mess hall so they could begin the tour of the camp, with Gwen following behind him. At their first stop, while the campers explored the activities field, Gwen pulled him aside and questioned him about Chucky’s comments.

“Who the hell is George?”

“He was the old counselor. He left on some… bad terms in the middle of the summer last year, so Mr. Campbell and I had to pick up his duties. It was a challenge, and that’s why I’m so glad you’re here!”

Once they'd finished their tour, stopped in the mess hall just before lunch, David started the campers off with icebreakers. Names, ages, and activities. He was only half paying attention, going over what the plan was for the rest of the day, since he'd mostly learned who everyone was from their files, and was now just putting faces to names. Until everything got quiet, and he snapped back to reality. It shouldn’t be quiet. All of the campers were focused on one kid, whose turn it must have been. He was a tiny kid, couldn’t be more than eight, and looked scared, in that "I'm going to punch someone if everyone doesn't stop looking at me" way that he'd seen on a couple campers last year during icebreakers. He spoke up, hoping to diffuse the situation.

“Hey there, kiddo, what’s your name?”

The kid spit the word out quickly, his eyes pointed at the floor.

“Max.”

So this was the mystery kid, whose application had come in only with his name written in crayon.

“How old are you, little dude? And which activity are you interested in?”

Max rolled his eyes, speaking with an almost angry tone.

“I’m six. And I don’t know, I’m just here because my mom wanted me out of the house.”

David exchanged surprised looks with Gwen. He was too young to be here. Had his parents not seen the age range printed on the paperwork? They had no plan for dealing with kids that young. But they had to make it work, they couldn’t exactly send him back. Still, something about this kid’s situation felt off. No activity, just sent here to be away from his parents? It hit a little too close to home. But David refrained from making any judgments. The kid was probably just overreacting, tired and grumpy from a long bus ride.

“Okay, Max, we’ll find you something fun that you’ll love! Now, who’s next?”

The rest of the icebreaker, as well as lunch, passed without incident after that, though David made sure either him or Gwen were always keeping an eye on little Max, making sure he didn’t fall behind. The two of them let the kids run around and play at the lake so they could step back for a second.

“You said this place was for eight to twelve-year-olds.”

“It is! I don’t know why he’s here, it says in bold letters on the legal paperwork that it is.”

“Who’s in charge of that stuff? You or Campbell?”

“Mr. Campbell is.”

“How much do you want to bet he never looked at anyone’s paperwork? He’s barely been at camp all week, he's not even here today!”

David sighed. She had a point. While he admired Mr. Campbell for being able to run the camp while still juggling all of his other projects, his boss wasn’t the most thorough with all of the legal stuff.

“David, I don’t know anything about kids this young, I don’t know anything about kids at all!”

“We'll figure out what to do with him. At least he seems to be getting along with the other kids.”

David scanned the beach looking for Max and saw him a little ways away from the group. And just as he said that, David watches as Nurf, a stocky nine year old who’d caused his fair share of trouble last year, approach him and have some kind of conversation with him, before punching him in the gut. He collapsed, and before either of them could react, punched Nurf back, who just laughed, and then started crying as Nurf walked away. David ran towards Max to comfort him, and Gwen ran to Nurf to tell him off. David saw Chucky, out of the corner of his eye, approach the scene and he tensed up. Chucky was usually nice enough, but he could be a bit rough around the edges. He passed right by Max, though, and right as Gwen got to Nurf, Chucky punched him in the face.

“Pick on someone your own size, shithead! Lay off the little kid, it’s not like he can fight back against you. You wanna fight, you can take me on!”

Gwen tried to separate the two boys to prevent any further injuries. Meanwhile, he sat down next to Max, who was bawling his eyes out.

“Hey little dude, are you doing okay? I know Nurf can be kinda mean.”

The boy looked up at him, his bright green eyes swimming with tears, looking scared, and, guilty? He almost seemed to plead with David, which definitely felt off from how he was acting earlier.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it! He wanted to know what was up with me, but I didn’t know what he meant and I made him angry. Please don’t be mad!”

“Hey, hey, it's alright, it’s not your fault. Nurf has some problems with anger, he lashes out at people a lot. We’re trying to help him be a nicer person, but he’s still mean sometimes. Did it leave a bruise?”

“I don’t know, it hurts a bunch.”

“Can you lift up your shirt so I can look at it?”

“Okay, I guess.”

He lifted up his shirt to reveal an already purpling bruise on his lower chest. There was another yellowing one farther down on his stomach, and even though it was probably nothing, alarm bells were ringing in David's head.

“Yep, that’s a bruise all right. What happened to your stomach?”

Max tensed up, looking pointedly away from him. 

“I fell.”

This was all sorts of bad news.

“Kiddo, have either of your parents ever hurt you?”

Max continued to look at anything but David, his voice clipped, but with a nervous edge.

“No. And even if they did, why would I tell you?”

"Kiddo, if something's going on, you should tell me. I can help you."

Max turned his eyes to David warily, like a stray cat watching him open a can of tuna.

"But, she said if I ever said anything, they'll take me away forever. I don't want that to happen. What if he comes back and I'm gone? I have to wait for him. He wouldn't have left all of his things with us if he wasn't coming back, right?"

With his last question, Max looked so small, still with a glimmer of hope in his wet, shining eyes, and David felt like he was watching a story he'd lived out all those years ago. And then, he seemed to realize what he'd just said, and met his counselor's eyes with a panicked expression, tears falling onto his lap.

"You're not going to take me away from her because I said that, right? It's all lies! I'm lying! None of it's true!"

He was freaking out now, grabbing onto David's arms and begging, over and over, not to take him away from his mom. David's own eyes shone with tears as he heard another young boy, many years ago, pleading with a man, whose name never mattered, after sighs and snide comments accompanied the car ride home from summer camp, taunting him by wondering out loud if he should just be left in the nearest town, that he was such a burden on his mother, why did he think she left him there for so long. Thankfully, that man hadn't lasted long after that. David, back in the present, gently put his hands on Max's shoulders, and spoke to him the words he wished someone had told him all those years ago. The situation was different, he'd need to do something about it eventually, but for now, the boy just needed comfort.

“It's okay kiddo, I’m not going to take you away. Everything’s going to be just fine.”

Max calmed a little at that, but still seemed nervous, looking around as if searching for some imaginary boogeyman.

“But, but, I’m not supposed to say things like that. I’m not allowed to tell people about my mom and dad. I messed up. She’s going to be mad at me.”

“She’s not here, Max, she doesn’t have to know you said it. You're safe here. If you ever want to say something, even if it would get you in trouble at home, you can tell me. I’m not going to be mad at you, I promise.”

Max, finally placated, gave a shaky smile to him, wiping the last of the tears out of his eyes. He then looked past David, eyes widening as he mouthed "Holy shit." David turned his head to see Gwen desperately trying to keep Nurf and Chucky from having a fistfight, and not really succeeding, with all of the other campers having allied themselves with one or the other, cheering them on. David couldn't keep a small laugh from escaping him as his best friend yelled her head off at a group of uncontrollable children, hell-bent on causing chaos. This was going to be a long summer, but definitely an interesting one if this dynamic kept up.

“You should go to your counselor friend, she looks like she needs help.”

"You know, you're probably right. Are you going to be okay here?

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure, kiddo?”

"Seriously, I'm alright now. I'll even come with you, I wanna see how this plays out.

David stood up and reached down to ruffle the boy's hair, pleased that his snark was starting to show through the fear. This earned an eyroll, but another small smile from him. And so, he jogged over to help his co-counselor, and together, they were able to break it all up, and even got Nurf to apologize to Max, though everyone involved could tell he didn’t mean it. The counselors led the campers back to the mess hall to organize the next activity, a much calmer game about teamwork and trust, and David noticed Chucky in the back talking to Max. Good, they both needed a friend, he just hoped Chucky wouldn’t be too bad of an influence on Max. When everyone separated into threes to make their teams, another new camper joined Max and Chucky, an eight-year-old named Sapphira, who told both of them that she'd kill them if they didn't call her Sapphy instead, citing the fact that she was there for ninja camp. He and Gwen had decided that was basically going to be karate in ninja costumes. She seemed to be impressed with Chucky, and David gave Gwen a pleased look when he heard something along the lines that she was going to teach Max to kick people’s butts. He was glad Mad had found people who could protect him. David finally sat down at a table with his co-counselor, near the front of the room, so they could monitor the campers to make sure no one got hurt.

“So what happened with Max and Nurf? I didn’t really get much of a motive from where I was, just lots of children yelling at each other.”

“I don’t really know. I think Nurf asked him why he was there, and he got defensive about it. I’m concerned about Max, though. I’m pretty sure there’s something going on at home.”

“Holy shit, really? I mean, I got a little bit of a vibe when he said he was only there because his mom wanted him to be, but is it bad?”

He filled her in on everything that had happened while she was trying to break up the fight, and put his head in his hands.

“God, Gwen, I don’t know what to do. I don’t think we technically have enough evidence to report this, and I told him I wouldn’t take him away from his parents. But we need to help him somehow.”

“Look, David, everything’s okay for the time being. He’s here right now, away from anyone that can hurt him. Except Nurf, but that’s something we can deal with. We’ll try to get as much information out of Max as possible, and by the end of the summer, we’ll have enough to file a report.”

“I guess you’re right. All we can do for now is look out for him.”

The rest of the day progressed without any other incidents, which the two counselors considered a success, even if they didn’t actually accomplish much. And after everyone ate dinner and gathered around the big start of summer campfire that was camp tradition, Max sat next to the two of them, with his new friends, Chucky and Sapphy, and slowly opened up to them. Not about anything in his home life, but things that kids should be thinking about, like his favorite dinosaur, the Pterodactyl, and how if he could have a superpower, it would be teleportation. Both of the counselors were glad to see him fitting in. And, all of the campers were actually getting along pretty well for the time being. Gwen noticed Nurf give Max some dirty looks from across the fire, and nudged David to keep an eye on him, but no one tried to push anyone into the fire, like last year, so things were going pretty well. Eventually, the fire was put out and the kids were sent to their tents for the night. But only a few minutes later, when Gwen went out to check and make sure all of the campers actually were in their tents, and David was heading to the counselors’ cabin to get some rest, Max ran up to him, and it looked like he was about to cry.

“David, David, Nurf stole Mr. Honeynuts and he won’t give him back!”

“Who’s Mr. Honeynuts?”

“He’s my favorite bear, I’ve had him since forever, and Nurf took him because he said only babies need bears! I’m not a baby!”

“How did Nurf even know where he was?”

“He’s in my tent with me.”

Oh God, David thought, this is why he shouldn’t make up the sleeping arrangements at three am with no sleep. How could he have been so stupid as to put Nurf, violently loose cannon, with a kid that he knew nothing about at the time? He’d have to switch everything around in the morning, but right now, the kid couldn’t sleep with Nurf. David didn’t exactly trust the older boy not to go off on Max in the middle of the night.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get Mr. Honeynuts back! Here, grab onto my hand so you don’t get lost, it’s pretty dark out here.”

The two of them made their way to the tents, where they saw Gwen come out of one and notice David, but in the darkness, not Max.

“David, there you are! I can’t find Max anywhere. Fuck, I can’t believe we lost one on the first night.”

“Gwen, he’s with me!”

She finally noticed the kid's small outline next to his.

“Oh thank God. Well, nothing’s out of the ordinary besides that, so we should be good.”

“Not exactly, Nurf stole Max’s bear, and apparently I put them in the same tent.”

“Shit, what are we going to do about that? We can’t leave them in there, and I am not rearranging everyone’s tent buddies tonight.”

“I was thinking maybe he could spend the night in the counselors’ cabin with us.”

The counselor turned to Max, who didn’t appear to be listening to anything the two of them were saying, only concerned with his bear.

“Does that sound good to you? Do you want to spend the night with the two of us until we can get you a nicer tent buddy?”

“Can I bring Mr. Honeynuts?”

“Sure you can, kiddo!”

“Then yeah.”

“Gwen, can you go get a spare cot out of the Mess Hall attic for Max?”

“I’ll try.”

Gwen walked off towards the Mess Hall, and Max and David proceeded towards Nurf’s tent. He told the boy to stay outside and not wander off, and that he would get his bear and his things. He then entered the tent that Nurf was supposed to be sharing with Max, where Nurf was sitting in a corner, playing with a knife he was not supposed to have.

“Nurf, please give me that knife. You’re not allowed to have weapons.”

“Fuck off, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!”

“Alright, how about I let you keep the knife for now, but you give me Max’s stuffed bear. I know you took it from him, so hand it over.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“Max won’t be your tent buddy anymore. I’m going to be switching things around tomorrow because you two are obviously not a good fit.”

“Why would I want that? I like having him here. I can punch him in the middle of the night and no one will find out. Let me pick who my next tent buddy is and I’ll think about it.”

Jokes on Nurf, David was already planning to let everyone pick their tent buddies tomorrow. But he knew how Nurf operated, he couldn’t give it to him too easily, or he’d ask for more than that. It would have to seem like he won it for him to be satisfied.

“Depends. Who do you want as your tent buddy?”

“You know who I want. I want Jimmy.”

David knew he was going to say that. Jimmy was the kid Nurf looked up to and his partner in bullying. A wilderness survival camp kid like Chucky, Jimmy was like an older version of Nurf, with twice the mean streak. It would probably be an absolute disaster putting them together, but even if he wasn’t doing it as leverage, they probably would’ve picked each other to be put together anyway, so it wasn’t a huge deal. David acted like he was really deliberating on it for a few seconds, before nodding.

“Okay, Nurf. If he wants to be your tent buddy, he can be. Now give me the bear.”

Nurf smirked as if he had the upper hand, and held up the bear. It had a large tear where the neck met the body.

“Did you do this?”

“So what if I did?”

“Nurf, did you cut open the bear or not?”

“Yeah, I did, what are you going to do about it?”

I quickly grabbed the bear out of his hands and scooped up the rest of Max’s stuff. As he was about to leave the tent, the counselor turned to Nurf.

“I'm very disappointed in you. No dessert tomorrow for destroying another camper’s property.”

“You motherfucker! I’ll cut you!”

David swiftly exited the tent, knowing he wouldn’t actually do anything.

“Hey, Max, I got your stuff and your bear, but Nurf put a cut in him, so I’ll have to sew it up once we get back to the counselors’ cabin. Do you mind if I hang onto him until we get there? I don’t want him to lose any stuffing.”

“You’re really going to fix him? You’re not going to take him away from me?”

“Of course I’m not going to take him away. As soon as he’s sewn up, I’ll give him right back.”

“Okay, I guess you can hold onto him. I’m sorry I made you make Nurf angry. I just don’t know what I would do without Mr. Honeynuts. I never sleep without him. I didn’t want to bother you, but Nurf is scary with a knife.”

“It’s not your fault, kiddo. If someone is mean to you, you should tell someone you trust, and they’ll take care of it. You did the right thing coming to me, I wouldn’t have wanted you to get hurt again. Don’t be afraid of bothering me, that’s what I’m here for! Even if it’s the middle of the night, you can always come to Gwen or I if you need something.”

“Thanks for getting Mr. Honeynuts back to me.”

“It’s no problem, Max. Here, grab onto my hand again, and I’ll bring you to the counselors’ cabin so you can spend the night with Gwen and I.”

They walked across the camp together and made it back to the cabin, where Gwen was sitting inside on her bed, without the cot.

“Gwen, what happened? I told you to get one of the spare cots in the attic.”

“There’s nothing in the attic. It’s completely empty. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, those government guys must have come looking for Mr. Campbell again. Things always seem to go missing when they show up. Well, that's okay... I'll just... uh, figure something out! But first, I'm going to sew up Max's bear, Nurf tore it up a little.”

“Jesus Christ that kid is a handful. I'm going to go brush my teeth and all that good stuff.”

David put Max’s things down by the door, where he was standing, and grabbed his sewing kit. He sat on one of the armchairs in the cabin and carefully sewed the bear up. In the middle of his stitching, he noticed Max’s eyes on him.

“What’s up kiddo?”

“You can sew? I thought things like sewing and baking were only for girls.”

“Sewing is a very useful skill to know, and no activity is reserved for one gender. If you have something you like to do, you should do it, regardless of who you are. Why, did someone tell you that?”

“Mom used to let me help her bake cookies before Dad went away, but now she doesn’t do it. I tried to do it once, but she got mad. She said I shouldn’t do stuff like that because it’s not for boys. I’m not allowed to do it anymore. You won’t tell her I said that, right?”

Gwen, who had come back out of the bathroom to grab some pajamas to change into, shared a look with David.

“Of course not. If you like baking, maybe we can try to set up a baking camp for you.”

“I don’t know, I don’t want her to find out, plus I think Chucky and Sapphy would think it’s dumb because they’re all fight-y.”

“If they’re really your friends, they’ll like you even if your interests are different than theirs. Plus, you can make them cookies! Everyone likes cookies! There, all finished.”

David handed the stitched-up bear back to Max, who gave it a big hug.

“Thanks, David, you’re really cool.”

He smiled at the boy, and finally came up with an idea for their sleeping arrangements.

"Oh, I know! Max, why don't you sleep my bed, and I can sleep in one of these armchairs! They can recline, so they'll probably be pretty comfortable to sleep in!"

"You don't mind me taking your bed?"

"Not at all, kiddo, you go ahead and get some good rest. This armchair is plenty comfortable enough for me!"

Max looked at him peculiarly, but didn't refuse the offer.

"Alright, if you say so."

And with that, Max kicked his shoes off and crawled into bed without even bothering to get changed. He was out like a light within a minute, holding his bear close, still in his camp t-shirt and jean shorts. Meanwhile, David knocked on the bathroom door with his pajamas to see if Gwen was done getting ready for bed, and to ask to steal a blanket from the mountain of them on her bed. She shook her head, rolling her eyes when he told her he'd taken the armchair, but smiled and gave him a blanket and a pillow after he got changed and brushed his teeth. Finally, the day was over, and though it took David a little longer to fall asleep than normal, he achieved unconsciousness fairly quickly.

He was the first one to wake up, as usual, but something was off. He was at camp, but this didn't feel like the glorified cot he'd been sleeping on for the last week. He opened his eyes to see the very first rays of sunlight starting to illuminate the room, and the sight of Max, fast asleep in his bed, jogged his groggy mind. He reached over to the coffee table and grabbed his phone to check the time- 5:34 am. Earlier than he needed to be awake, since the campers didn’t have to be woken up until seven, but not a completely unusual time for him to get up if he wanted to shower and still let Gwen have time to get cleaned up. But today, he decided he would get a little more sleep, he didn’t want to accidentally wake Max up. He set his alarm for 6:30 and closed his eyes.

He awoke for the second time not to the sound of his alarm, but to the sound of Gwen’s hairdryer. Max was somehow still asleep in his bed. David checked his phone again- 6:23. Not a bad time to get up, Gwen must have woken up at six. He knew there was no way he was getting a shower, but perhaps he could kick Gwen out of the bathroom for long enough to brush his teeth and do his hair. David pounded on the bathroom door, not afraid of waking Max up- if he’d slept through the noise of her hairdryer, he’d sleep through anything. Gwen opened the door and he politely kicked her out for a few minutes so he could get cleaned up and dressed. David had just gotten dressed when he heard her call for him. He stepped out of the bathroom to see her sitting on his bed, where Max was thrashing around.

“I think he’s having a nightmare, I don’t know what to do.”

“Wake him up, I guess.”

He joined Gwen on his bed and the two of them gently woke him up. He started freaking out a little bit when he first awoke, but they reminded him where he was and told him he was going to be alright, that they were here for him, and he calmed down. David went back into the bathroom to do his hair quickly, and then let Max have it to get dressed and brush his teeth. Something about the whole routine seemed nice. Like something David could get used to. But he quickly shook himself out of it, they were going to assign Max a tent buddy, today was probably going to be the only time this would happen. Once Max came out of the bathroom, he and Gwen went into the Mess Hall while David did his rounds, waking up all of the campers and bringing them to the Mess Hall. Over breakfast, the counselors told them that they were going to change things up, that they could all pick someone to be their tent buddy for the rest of the summer. David felt a glare boring into him from Nurf, but brushed it off. Nurf had gotten what he wanted, only on David's terms. The two counselors sat back down as all of the kids ran around pairing up to be tent buddies, and David smiled when he noticed Max with Chucky. Good, he needed someone to keep him safe.

—

The days passed fairly quickly that summer, with Gwen easing into the motions of being a counselor, and slowly getting better with the kids, and David keeping up his cheery attitude for them whenever he could, and when he couldn’t, when he was having a day too bad to pretend that everything was fine, and his usual daily meds weren't working, Gwen would tell everyone he wasn’t feeling well, and she’d take over for him. He felt terrible for making her do it, but knew he would do the same for her if she ever needed it. She never got as joyful around the kids as he did, but it was almost better like that, for them to balance out in the way they did. David with his almost endless optimism and his head in the clouds, and Gwen with her down to earth attitude and sarcasm. They always looked out for Max, and took to calling him their littlest camper when talking about him alone. They saw him come out of his shell and develop sarcasm and snarkiness. And even when Nurf would give him shit, as they developed somewhat of a rivalry, Chucky and Sapphy would be there to back him up physically whenever he’d make one too many sharp comebacks. Of course, the two counselors were always there to break up anything that got too out of hand. They was so proud of the three of them, how they’d grown and become close. Two months passed by in a blur, and somehow, it was already the last day of camp. Gwen and David still had no idea what to do with the issue surrounding Max’s home life, as they hadn’t gotten him to open up about it. He was still so defensive about things outside of camp. The two of them watched him carefully during the last day, and noticed how he went through the day with a grim sense of determination. He’d finished packing his bags fairly quickly, so David decided to talk to him about it, not really expecting anything, but still feeling the need to try.

“Hey, how’s it going, Max?”

“Fine. Everything’s fine.”

“Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just nervous I guess.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know how to feel about going home.”

“What do you mean by that?”

He paused, and I almost thought he was going to open up, but he changed the subject.

“I have cool friends here. I’m gonna miss them.”

“Well, you’ll see them next year. Did you have a good time here at camp?”

“Yeah, I did. It’s been fun.”

David didn’t want to try to get him to reveal anything he didn’t want to, so he left it there. The two counselors walked around the camp, making sure no one had left everything in their tents, and then the yellow school bus was here again. They waved to the kids as they boarded, and Max even gave them a small wave back through the bus window. The bus pulled away, and it suddenly felt so empty, not seeing or hearing any kids running around and causing havoc. It was strange, knowing they were the only ones there, besides the Quartermaster. The two of them got to packing up, taking down the tents in a strange silence. Eventually, Gwen broke it.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. I hope he comes back. I always hope they come back, but this is different.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Do you think you’re going to do this again next summer?”

Gwen stopped disassembling tents and turned to look at me, a strange smile on her face.

“This summer’s been hell in a lot of ways. I’ve had to break up multiple fights, I’ve had to eat food prepared by the Quartermaster for two months straight, I’ve had to deal with you being so peppy, or, now that there's no children around, so fucking manic, my head felt like exploding, I’ve had to police a dozen screaming children, and I’ve lived in a cabin in the woods with shitty cell service. But it’s strange, knowing that I made a difference in those kids’ lives draws me to this place. And I hated children! Maybe you’ve just been rubbing off on me too much, but yeah, I’m definitely doing this next summer.”

“Oh, Gwen!”

David dropped the tent poles he was pulling out of a tent, and ran over to hug her.

“This summer’s been better than any other I’ve had here, and it’s because of you. We make a great team.”

“That we do.”


End file.
